]]>Jalaja Bonheim on the Christine Upchurch Showhttps://jalajabonheim.com/jalaja-bonheim-on-the-christine-upchurch-show/
Thu, 01 Nov 2018 14:12:52 +0000https://jalajabonheim.com/?p=9291An inspiring hour-long interview on feminine healing and empowerment. Listen now! (Interview begins at 4 minutes)
]]>Interview on Energy Awareness Radio with host T Lovehttps://jalajabonheim.com/interview-with-jalaja-bonheim-phd-author-of-the-magic-of-circlework-on-energy-awareness-radio-with-host-t-love/
Fri, 27 Apr 2018 15:10:00 +0000https://jalajabonheim.com/?p=9130Interview with Jalaja Bonheim, PhD, author of The Magic of Circlework, on Energy Awareness Radio with host T Love. Jalaja explains how Circlework heals and empowers women, transforming their lives beyond the actual circle experience.
]]>Out of the Fog Radio: Interview with Karen Hagerhttps://jalajabonheim.com/out-of-the-fog-radio-interview-with-karen-hager/
Tue, 10 Apr 2018 19:33:24 +0000https://jalajabonheim.com/?p=9109If you are passionate about healing, peace, and spiritual awakening, Circlework is a practice you should know about. Jalaja Bonheim joins Karen to talk about this international movement of women gathering in circles to heal and empower themselves. Listen now!
]]>Circlework: The Practice Women Around the World Are Using to Heal and Empower Themselveshttps://jalajabonheim.com/circlework-the-practice-women-around-the-world-are-using-to-heal-and-empower-themselves/
Tue, 13 Mar 2018 17:33:06 +0000https://jalajabonheim.com/?p=9081How to Connect to the Healing Power of the Sisterhood, Care2 Blog, Feb 2018https://jalajabonheim.com/how-to-connect-to-the-healing-power-of-the-sisterhood/
Thu, 01 Mar 2018 22:30:10 +0000https://jalajabonheim.com/?p=9006Do you often feel isolated, invisible and unheard? If so, you’re not alone. Forty percent of Americans report feeling lonely. And, according to Vivek Murthy, the former U.S. Surgeon General, loneliness isn’t just emotionally painful—it’s a health epidemic that poses a greater threat than obesity or smoking.

Isolation is not only bad for our health, it’s also disempowering—especially for women. I work with women leaders from all continents, and without exception, I’ve found that to step into their full power, they need the support of other women. Without sisterhood, we can’t really know who we are….

]]>Blogcritics interview with Jalaja Bonheim on ‘The Magic of Circlework, Feb 2018https://jalajabonheim.com/interview-jalaja-bonheim-author-of-the-magic-of-circlework-the-practice-women-from-around-the-world-are-using-to-heal-and-empower-themselves/
Fri, 23 Feb 2018 22:27:57 +0000https://jalajabonheim.com/?p=9002I had the chance to interview Jalaja Bonheim, one of the world’s foremost experts in the use of circle gatherings and author of The Magic of Circlework: The Practice Women from Around the World Are Using to Heal and Empower Themselves, which I reviewed on this site. Diverse groups of people are flocking to Circlework for the healing power it generates….

A Companion Guide to The Magic of Circlework

Published by the Institute for Circlework
March 1, 2018
298 pages
$108
ISBN: 978-0-9993425-0-3

Overview

For over three decades, Jalaja Bonheim, PhD, has been training women from around the world in Circlework, a process that uses circle gatherings for healing, empowerment and peacemaking. Now, for the first time, she is making the powerful tools and concepts of Circlework available to a wider audience.

Building on material covered in The Magic of Circlework, the Training Manual provides a wealth of practical guidance for anyone interested in deepening the level of intimacy and authenticity in groups they facilitate or participate in. This includes men, for while Jalaja’s personal focus lies on empowering women, she views Circlework as a practice that can benefit men equally.

The Circlework Training Manual has three parts: Foundations, Practices and Challenges.

Foundations covers all aspects of creating, organizing and leading circle gatherings based on the principles of Circlework.

Practices offers a rich treasure trove of exercises and tools, not only for Circlework leaders, but for anyone who leads or participates in groups and wants to take the process to a deeper, more sacred place. Drawing on three decades of experience in training circle leaders from around the world, Jalaja Bonheim explains the practices and their implementation in simple, clear language.

Challenges deals with the hurdles that circles may face. What to do if someone won’t stop talking? How to respond to Kundalini awakenings? How to work with conflict? Here, readers will find a treasure trove of advice that will benefit not only group facilitators but anyone who works with groups of people.

The Circlework Training Manual includes:

Verbatim transcripts from Jalaja’s circles

Powerful meditations

Great stories

Dozens of practices with step by step instructions

Questions and answers

Quotes and anecdotes from participants

Beautiful essays in which Jalaja picks up and expands on topics addressed in The Magic of Circlework

If you haven’t experienced Circlework first-hand, please be sure to read the book first! Without the basic concepts, insights and understanding covered in The Magic of Circlework, you will not be able to use the manual effectively.

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Praise

A masterful book on how to launch a successful group dedicated to empowering participants. Jalaja’s treatment of every aspect of group work reflect her many years of experience as Circlework teacher and trainer. The Manual addresses all the practicalities of setting up a group, exercises to use during a session, and common challenges one may encounter when engaged in deep work. I’ve never seen such a rich compilation of exercises, some of which I’ll use in my own groups. The layout is beautiful and easily accessible. If you are a group leader or aspire to be one, this book is a must!

Alice McDowell, author of Hidden Treasure: How to Break Free of Five Patterns that Hide Your True Self

The Circlework Training Manual is incredible! Jalaja did a masterful job of taking a complex spiritual experience and putting it into a clear linear form.

THE MAGIC OF CIRCLEWORK
The Practice Women around the World are Using to Heal and Empower Themselves

Published by Meetings in Sacred Space

March 1, 2018

300 pages

$18.95

ISBN: 978-0-9993425-1-0

Overview

Circlework is a nurturing and spacious practice that honors the feminine spirit. Developed by Jalaja Bonheim, PhD, it addresses women’s hunger for authenticity and intimacy while also connecting them with their feminine essence. Through a wide range of tools that include not only talking but also movement, touch, and immersion in nature, a space is created that feels equally safe and sacred. Here, women have space to listen deeply, both to their own hearts and souls and to one another. Circlework has also proven its value as an effective peace practice that is being used in the Middle East to unite Jewish and Palestinian women.

Though Jalaja is an award-winning author, none of her previous books reveal the concepts and tools that make Circlework such a magical experience. Until now, the only way to access the secrets of Circlework was to attend her retreats or trainings. Now, for the first time, she explains how ordinary circle gatherings are transformed into true mandalas—fields of sacred presence imbued with love, peace and joy.

The Magic of Circlework includes the stories and voices of many women who are using Circlework to heal their lives and relationships. Inspiring embodiments of feminine power, they have bonded to form a global sisterhood that transcends all national and religious boundaries. Anyone interested in the process of healing and evolution will love their stories of life-altering encounters and awakenings.

At the same time, Jalaja emphasizes that readers can use the principles of Circlework even if they never attend a circle gathering. Circlework is, after all, not just a group process. It’s also a spiritual practice that approaches the circle as an inner healing medicine that all humans are born with. Throughout the ages, many have recognized its potency. The great psychologist CG Jung, for example, described the circle as “the archetype of wholeness and divinity”. The Magic of Circlework teaches us to tap this powerful inner source that can help us stay centered, balanced and whole, even in the face of outer turbulence.

You will learn …

How to create sacred space and live in it, all the time.

What third stage circles are, and why we need them.

How to use the power of sacred geometry to bring healing and connection.

How circle gatherings can foster inner and outer peace.

Why we usually misunderstand the nature of the sacred feminine and why we need her.

What leadership grounded in feminine values looks like.

How to heal old wounds caused by group rejection.

Circlework as a tool for mental health practitioners.

Skillful conflict resolution.

How we can create ripples of healing and transformation.

Purchase of the book includes access to valuable online resources, including a list of recommended music for circles, audio meditations with Jalaja, and much more.

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Praise

Delightful, entertaining, and wise, The Magic of Circlework is a seminal guide for all of us who want to change the world for the better, and realize we can’t do it alone. This amazing book shows us how we can co-create sacred space and build community in ways that are profoundly healing and sacred.

MARCI SHIMOFF, Author of Happy for No Reason

Circlework dissolves our separateness and awakens us to the shared heartspace that is our evolutionary potential. This book is a deeply wise, compassionate and invaluable guide for our times.

TARA BRACH, Author of Radical Acceptance and True Refuge

The Magic of Circlework is a wonderful, right and useful book, essential for building and sustaining synergistic spiritual community. Read it and use it!

ANDREW HARVEY, Author of The Hope – A Guide to Sacred Activism

The Magic of Circlework celebrates the transformative, empowering, spiritual and magical power of women’s circles. Drawing from decades of experience leading circles in many parts of the world, Jalaja Bonheim includes many inspiring stories and examples. An invaluable resource for any women who belongs to a circle or wants to facilitate circles!

JEAN SHINODA BOLEN. MD. author of The Millionth Circle and Goddesses in Every Woman

Question 1. What happens in a circle gathering, like the one you facilitated between Palestinian and Jewish women?

In my circles, we cocreate and extremely potent field of love that changes how we perceive ourselves and others- I call it “Seeing with sacred eyes.” We’re still Jews or Palestinians, Christians or Muslims, but more fundamentally, we’re women on a sacred path. Women have always gathered in hard times to heal, support, and comfort each other. So it feels very natural for us to connect in this way that honors each woman’s unique beauty.

Question 2. You describe your heat-shame as a “huge obstacle to our collective healing.” What do you mean by this?